AN ACT to amend and reenact §48-27-301 of the Code of West
Virginia, 1931, as amended; and to amend and reenact §51-2A-2
of said code, all relating to authorizing the Supreme Court of
Appeals to utilize existing judicial officers and resources to
establish and implement one domestic violence court pilot
project; establishing and clarifying the jurisdiction of the
pilot project court; establishing an expiration date for the
pilot project and requesting reports to the President of the
Senate and Speaker of the House of Delegates prior to the
convening of the regular sessions of the legislature in the
years 2015 and 2016.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

That §48-27-301 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be
amended and reenacted; and that §51-2A-2 of said code be amended
and reenacted, all to read as follows:

CHAPTER 48. DOMESTIC RELATIONS.

ARTICLE 27. PREVENTION AND TREATMENT OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE.

PART 3. PROCEDURE.

§48-27-301. Jurisdiction.

(a) Circuit courts, family courts and magistrate courts, have
concurrent jurisdiction over domestic violence proceedings as
provided in this article.

(b) The Supreme Court of Appeals is authorized to assign an
appropriate judicial officer for one pilot domestic violence court
in any jurisdiction chosen by the Supreme Court of Appeals. The
judicial officer assigned has the authority and jurisdiction to
preside over criminal misdemeanor crimes of domestic violence
involving family or household members as defined in subdivisions
one through six and paragraphs (A), (B) and (H), subdivision seven,
section two hundred four of this article, relating to offenses
under subsections (b) and (c), section nine, article two, chapter
sixty-one of this code, misdemeanor violations of section nine-a,
article two, chapter sixty-one of this code, misdemeanor violations
of section twenty-eight, article two, chapter sixty-one of this
code, misdemeanor offenses under article three, chapter sixty-one
of this code, where the alleged perpetrator and the victim are said
family or household members, subdivisions seven and eight, section
seven, article seven, chapter sixty-one of this code and civil and
criminal domestic violence protective order proceedings as provided
in this article. The judicial officer chosen for any pilot
domestic violence court may be a current or senior status circuit
judge, family court judge, temporary family court judge or
magistrate. The Supreme Court of Appeals is requested to maintain
statistical data to determine the feasibility and effectiveness of
any pilot domestic violence court established by the provisions of
this section. The program shall terminate December 31, 2016, and
the Supreme Court is requested to provide a report to the President
of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Delegates regarding
the program’s efficacy prior to the regular sessions of the
Legislature in 2015 and 2016.

(c) The assigned judicial officer, in this pilot domestic
violence court, does not have jurisdiction to preside over any
felony crimes.

CHAPTER 51. COURTS AND THEIR OFFICERS.

ARTICLE 2A. FAMILY COURTS.

§51-2A-2. Family court jurisdiction; exceptions; limitations.

(a) The family court shall exercise jurisdiction over the
following matters:

(1) All actions for divorce, annulment or separate maintenance
brought under the provisions of article three, four or five,
chapter forty-eight of this code except as provided in subsections
(b) and (c) of this section;

(2) All actions to obtain orders of child support brought
under the provisions of articles eleven, twelve and fourteen,
chapter forty-eight of this code;

(3) All actions to establish paternity brought under the
provisions of article twenty-four, chapter forty-eight of this code
and any dependent claims related to such actions regarding child
support, parenting plans or other allocation of custodial
responsibility or decision-making responsibility for a child;

(4) All actions for grandparent visitation brought under the
provisions of article ten, chapter forty-eight of this code;

(5) All actions for the interstate enforcement of family
support brought under article sixteen, chapter forty-eight of this
code and for the interstate enforcement of child custody brought
under the provisions of article twenty of said chapter;

(6) All actions for the establishment of a parenting plan or
other allocation of custodial responsibility or decision-making
responsibility for a child, including actions brought under the
Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act, as provided
in article twenty, chapter forty-eight of this code;

(7) All petitions for writs of habeas corpus wherein the issue
contested is custodial responsibility for a child;

(8) All motions for temporary relief affecting parenting plans
or other allocation of custodial responsibility or decision-making
responsibility for a child, child support, spousal support or
domestic violence;

(9) All motions for modification of an order providing for a
parenting plan or other allocation of custodial responsibility or
decision-making responsibility for a child or for child support or
spousal support;

(10) All actions brought, including civil contempt
proceedings, to enforce an order of spousal or child support or to
enforce an order for a parenting plan or other allocation of
custodial responsibility or decision-making responsibility for a
child;

(11) All actions brought by an obligor to contest the
enforcement of an order of support through the withholding from
income of amounts payable as support or to contest an affidavit of
accrued support, filed with the circuit clerk, which seeks to
collect an arrearage;

(12) All final hearings in domestic violence proceedings;

(13) Petitions for a change of name, exercising concurrent
jurisdiction with the circuit court;

(14) All proceedings for payment of attorney fees if the
family court judge has jurisdiction of the underlying action;

(15) All proceedings for property distribution brought under
article seven, chapter forty-eight of this code;

(16) All proceedings to obtain spousal support brought under
article eight, chapter forty-eight of this code;

(17) All proceedings relating to the appointment of guardians
or curators of minor children brought pursuant to sections three,
four and six, article ten, chapter forty-four of this code,
exercising concurrent jurisdiction with the circuit court; and

(18) All proceedings relating to petitions for sibling
visitation.

(b) If an action for divorce, annulment or separate
maintenance does not require the establishment of a parenting plan
or other allocation of custodial responsibility or decision-making
responsibility for a child and does not require an award or any
payment of child support, the circuit court has concurrent
jurisdiction with the family court over the action if, at the time
of the filing of the action, the parties also file a written
property settlement agreement executed by both parties.

(c) If an action for divorce, annulment or separate
maintenance is pending and a petition is filed pursuant to the
provisions of article six, chapter forty-nine of this code alleging
abuse or neglect of a child by either of the parties to the
divorce, annulment or separate maintenance action, the orders of
the circuit court in which the abuse or neglect petition is filed
shall supercede and take precedence over an order of the family
court respecting the allocation of custodial and decision-making
responsibility for the child between the parents. If no order for
the allocation of custodial and decision-making responsibility for
the child between the parents has been entered by the family court
in the pending action for divorce, annulment or separate
maintenance, the family court shall stay any further proceedings
concerning the allocation of custodial and decision-making
responsibility for the child between the parents and defer to the
orders of the circuit court in the abuse or neglect proceedings.

(d) If a family court judge is assigned as a judicial officer
of a pilot domestic violence court then jurisdiction of all
proceedings relating to criminal misdemeanor crimes of domestic
violence as referenced in section three hundred one of this article
involving a family or household member as referenced in
subdivisions one through six and paragraphs (A), (B), and (H),
subdivision seven, section two hundred four, article twenty-seven,
chapter forty-eight of this code shall be concurrent with the
circuit and magistrate courts.

(e) A family court is a court of limited jurisdiction. A
family court is a court of record only for the purpose of
exercising jurisdiction in the matters for which the jurisdiction
of the family court is specifically authorized in this section and
in chapter forty-eight of this code. A family court may not
exercise the powers given courts of record in section one, article
five, chapter fifty-one of this code or exercise any other powers
provided for courts of record in this code unless specifically
authorized by the Legislature. A family court judge is not a
“judge of any court of record” or a “judge of a court of record” as
the terms are defined and used in article nine of this chapter.